


marshmallow family

by agentmmayy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 15:24:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17246648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentmmayy/pseuds/agentmmayy
Summary: Making a gingerbread house is always a fun holiday activity (and a great chance to eat the candy decorations) but Daisy is unprepared for how it makes her think about her past Christmases, the present one, and how much family means to her, even in the form of marshmallow people.





	marshmallow family

**Author's Note:**

> once again, it's past Christmas but I got this idea on Christmas day and just had to write it and post it before the new year. hope you enjoy and happy new year!

"Will you  _ stop  _ eating those?" ****  
** **

Before Daisy’s fingers could sneak one last M&M, the bowl was snatched from her hands. She stared, open-mouthed as Melinda walked to the other side of the table with the bowl and squawked as the woman ate a few of the candies. “Hey!” ****  
** **

"Daisy," Phil sighed but didn’t bother to look up from where he was piping icing. His glasses teetered on the tip of his nose almost dangerously. "Those are for the house." ****  
** **

“She’s eating them too!” Daisy protested, pointing an accusatory finger to Melinda who only ate more candy. ****  
** **

“ _ Mel _ .” ****  
** **

"What's the fun in making one if you can't eat the decorations?" Melinda asked.  ****  
** **

"Waiting until it's all decorated." ****  
** **

Phil's mock glare was a harsh contrast to the smiling reindeer on his sweater.  ****  
** **

They were knitted into the design, their brown tone stark against bright red and white. The reindeer had their legs kicked exaggeratedly high as they formed a line dance around the bottom half of the sweater. The top half was decorated with snowflakes of various shapes and sizes. But not to be outdone, attached on the bottom hem of the sweater were tiny bells that jingled with every movement Phil made.  ****  
** **

Between batting away both Daisy and Melinda’s hands from the bowls of candy on the table they sat at, the sound of tingling bells near constantly filled the apartment, heard even over the Christmas music playing on the record player nearby in the living room.  ****  
** **

“I can't believe you talked me into buying one instead of making it from scratch,” Phil griped as he picked up a roof piece of the gingerbread house. The kitchen table was covered in the pieces for the house and the candy that came with it to decorate.  ****  
** **

Melinda rolled her eyes. “It would take too long.” She handed him the second roof piece. “This is much more efficient and easy.”  ****  
** **

“What’s the point in making one of these anyway?” Daisy asked, eyes following Phil’s movements as he “glued” down the roof of the gingerbread house they were attempting to construct and decorate.  ****  
** **

Phil shrugged. “It’s for fun.” ****  
** **

“And an excuse to eat icing,” Melinda added as she swiped her finger against the side of the plates Phil set the piping bag on. ****  
** **

By far the most unusual thing Daisy found out since the holiday season began was that Melinda had the biggest sweet tooth she had ever seen. Phil could hardly keep any baked goods in the house for long before they were all eaten and the same went for the candy they kept refilling to decorate the gingerbread house.  ****  
** **

Since he was too preoccupied holding the panels of the roof in place, Phil only narrowed his eyes at Melinda as she snuck yet another swipe of icing. “If you keep eating it, we won’t have any left to decorate the house with.” ****  
** **

“There’s always more in the pantry.” ****  
** **

“Anyway,” Phil continued as he picked up the piping bag once more. “It’s a holiday tradition for some people, or they do it to help them get into the Christmas spirit.”  ****  
** **

Daisy glanced around the apartment. “I don’t think we need any help with that.”  ****  
** **

Phil and Melinda’s apartment was decorated from top to bottom in Christmas decorations.  ****  
** **

There was garland on almost every surface it could be hung, including around the kitchen island and the mantle. It was even taped across doorways and along the seam where the ceiling and walls met. Along with the garland across the doorways were sprigs of mistletoe that Phil never passed up the chance to kiss Melinda under.  ****  
** **

The crowning glory of all the decorations, though, was the gigantic tree in the corner of the living room.  ****  
** **

The three of them spent an entire afternoon decorating it the day after Thanksgiving and even up until the week before Christmas, Phil was still adding ornaments to it. The white lights on the tree caught reflection in the many shiny ornaments that were hung, and their shadows joined the splotches of red and green sunlight on the dark flooring coming from the window decals Daisy helped Phil stick on the windows.  ****  
** **

There were dozens of brightly colored holiday jelly decals ranging from snowmen, ornaments, penguins, presents, and Christmas trees. There was even an elaborate decal of Santa’s sleigh, the reindeer, and individual letters spelling out  _ Merry Christmas _ on the windows next to Daisy where they were all sitting in the breakfast nook.  ****  
** **

Right next to where Melinda was standing was a decal of a gingerbread house that currently looked nothing like the one they were making.  ****  
** **

“I’ve never made one before,” Daisy said, turning to look back at the gingerbread house. It wasn’t typical for her to open up about her past, but perhaps the spiked eggnog Melinda shared with her earlier loosened her up. “The nuns never allowed this part of Christmas in the orphanage and the one family I was with for Christmas didn’t do one.” ****  
** **

Phil glanced up and echoed her words with a hint of confusion. “This part of Christmas?” ****  
** **

“Yeah, you know.” Daisy waved a hand dismissively. “Lights, letters to Santa, decorating, fun,” she said with a hint of resentment. “It was all religious stuff there.”  ****  
** **

There wasn’t anything wrong with that, of course, but it wasn’t what kids needed to truly experience the joy of Christmas. Daisy couldn’t count the times she found herself growing jealous of seeing kids lined up to see Santa. Eight-year-old Mary Sue knew that Santa was only a paid man in a fake beard, but maybe,  _ maybe  _ he could somehow help her find her parents. ****  
** **

Only, it seemed that Santa had somehow heard her un-uttered request.  ****  
** **

Daisy considered Phil and Melinda her parents for some time and even though those specific words were never spoken between any of them, Daisy thought they considered her theirs too. It felt even more surreal spending Christmas in their apartment rather than on the base. ****  
** **

“What did you do for Christmas, Daisy?” Melinda asked.  ****  
** **

Daisy shrugged. “At the orphanage, we went to Mass and in the morning got two gifts each from the donations the church provided,” she told them. “One family I was with at the beginning of December took me to pick out a tree with them. When I got older and was on my own, Christmas became a day to get drunk and try not to freeze in my van.”  ****  
** **

The information about her past clearly had its effect on Phil and Melinda. Even though they were familiar with Daisy’s rough life, it never got easier to hear new details about it. Both of them had lost their edge of lightheartedness that the holiday season provided even though they tried to hide it.  ****  
** **

“What was Christmas like for you guys when you were kids?” Daisy asked, wanting to change the subject and lighten the mood. She teased, “If you can remember that far back.” ****  
** **

"Haha,” Phil remarked dryly. “The night before Christmas Eve, my parents and I would drive around town to look at the lights,” he said. “About halfway through we’d stop for hot chocolate and walk around the town square.”  ****  
** **

"My parent and I didn't celebrate Christmas at home," Melinda said. "We celebrated Chinese New Year. But I went to friend’s Christmas parties and the ones at my schools.” ****  
** **

Phil glanced at her, his eyes alight with a memory, Daisy supposed. "Then came the academy." ****  
** **

Melinda smirked and took the piping bag from Phil when it began to drip. "And the pranks." ****  
** **

Even though Daisy was  _ quite  _ familiar with Melinda’s penchant for pranking, she still asked, "Pranks?" ****  
** **

"Oh yeah," Phil confirmed with a scoff. All of his focus was on Melinda as she piped a thick line of icing at the seam of the roof. "Mel used to go all out for Christmas. There was one time she wrapped  _ everything  _ in my dorm. Including my bed. It took me hours to unwrap it all.” ****  
** **

Melinda’s lips turned up into a rare, pleased smile as she looked down at the house. "And the time I painted the tip of your nose red while you were sleeping." ****  
** **

“Yeah.” Phil narrowed his eyes at her. “I walked around for half the day wondering why everyone was laughing.” ****  
** **

“You should have seen that coming. It’s a classic.” ****  
** **

“Remember the year you rigged the speakers to only play that cursed version of Jingle Bells?” Phil shook his head. He perked up at the soft chuckle his words pulled from Melinda. “I thought Jameson was going to shoot every speaker by the fifth time it played.”  ****  
** **

Daisy watched and listened, but continued sticking candies onto the gingerbread house as the two traded memories and reminisced over the past. It was nice to imagine a younger Melinda sneaking around the Academy and planting pranks, and even more fun to picture Phil being the victim of most of them.  ****  
** **

“You haven’t liked peppermint since then.” ****  
** **

“Wait,” Daisy said, snapping out of her thoughts just in time to catch the tail end of yet another prank. This one was about Melinda scraping the icing out of Oreos and replacing it with toothpaste. She turned to Phil. “Is that why you only use bubblegum toothpaste?” ****  
** **

“Yes,” he said. “I’m not only emotionally, but also mentally scarred from that day.” ****  
** **

Melinda scoffed as she handed the piping bag back to Phil. “So dramatic.” ****  
** **

When Phil lifted a wrist to wipe at his brow, the edge of his icing covered thumb almost caught the fuzzy white ball dangling from the Santa hat atop his head.  ****  
** **

“You’re going to get icing on your hat,” Melinda said, stepping closer to Phil to move the ball out of the way and adjust the hat. “Why are you wearing it anyway?” ****  
** **

“I’m being festive.” ****  
** **

Daisy scoffed. “He’s trying to cover his bald spot.” ****  
** **

“Maybe we should get you some Rogaine for Christmas,” Melinda teased before pulling the hat down over Phil’s eyes. She moved out of the way when his icing covered fingers reached out to retaliate and avoided any white smears on her black leggings.  ****  
** **

“Very funny,” Phil replied over their laughter. He successfully managed to lift the edge of his hat from covering his eyes and when he did, looked directly at the gingerbread house before him.  ****  
** **

"Do you think it's done?" ****  
** **

By baseline standards, the gingerbread house was complete. It was standing, for one, and the roof wasn’t sliding off (yet). There were frosted outlines of windows, a door, the chimney, and a quaint walkway of M&M’s that one either side had a line of gumdrops. Along the lines of the roof were ropes of cherry red vines and on the roof were gumdrops nestled between swoops of icing that resembled roof shingles.  ****  
** **

Overall, it looked decent, but to Daisy, it still felt incomplete. "It looks lonely." ****  
** **

“It does,” Phil agreed. Frowning, he tilted his head as he studied the cookie creation. “What does it need?” ****  
** **

Daisy abruptly stood from the table, her chair scraping across the floor as she quickly made her way to the pantry. “People.” ****  
** **

Phil’s confused voice carried after her as she hurried through the kitchen. “People?” ****  
** **

“We don’t have any people in there, Daisy,” Melinda said, watching as Daisy rummaged through the pantry. “This isn’t Radcliffe’s house.”  ****  
** **

“Oh, that was a good one.”  ****  
** **

Finding what she was searching for, Daisy grabbed the bag as well as another, larger, heavier one. She dumped both bags onto a small unoccupied space on the table and announced, “This is what we’ll make people out of.”  ****  
** **

Phil picked up both bags while Melinda leaned over his shoulder and asked, “Marshmallows and pretzel sticks?” ****  
** **

“Yep.” Daisy nodded. Reaching across the table, she poured more gumdrops into the bowl and snuck a few when Phil wasn’t looking. “For marshmallow people.”  ****  
** **

After Daisy dumped the large size marshmallows and pretzel sticks into their respective bowls, the three began to work on making marshmallow people. Daisy thought Melinda enjoyed stabbing the marshmallows a little too much but didn’t comment on it. ****  
** **

“I haven’t done this since elementary school,” Daisy mentioned as she stuck a half-eaten gumdrop on the top of a marshmallow. “When there were Christmas parties at my schools we made these.”  ****  
** **

“I can see why,” Phil said. “Making these is fun.” ****  
** **

Pausing in skewering one marshmallow onto a pretzel stick, Melinda reached and grabbed a few more marshmallows. “Eating them is too.”  ****  
** **

This time, Phil only rolled his eyes. There was no use in trying to stop Melinda from consuming the sweets. “What are you making, Daisy?” ****  
** **

“It’s a surprise,” Daisy answered vaguely. For effect, she moved her marshmallow and pretzel filled plate behind the box the gingerbread house came in so they couldn’t see. But, she peeked around it. “What are you making?” ****  
** **

“Just people, I guess,” Phil replied, sitting back to get a better look at the few decorated marshmallows before him. “That way I won’t feel too weird eating them later.” ****  
** **

“They’re just marshmallows, Phil.” ****  
** **

Daisy ended up tuning Phil and Melinda’s bickering out as she focused on the candy before her. It was probably pointless to get so invested in making the people since they would eventually be thrown away or eaten, but Daisy went over every detail, even going to the lengths of grabbing an edible black marker to draw glasses on one marshmallow person as well as eyes and mouths. By the time she was finished, she could tell Phil and Melinda were antsy to see what she made, even if Melinda hid it better than Phil.  ****  
** **

Without a word, Daisy turned her plate where the marshmallow people sat around to face them.  ****  
** **

"It's a marshmallow dad, a marshmallow mom." Daisy swallowed, eyes darting nervously between Phil and Melinda. “And a marshmallow daughter." ****  
** **

The silence after her last sentence seemed to stretch on forever. Daisy found herself holding her breath as she watched the two before her. Melinda and Phil were both staring at the marshmallow family with unreadable expressions. Heart pounding and her palms sweaty, Daisy began to want to take her words back, but then Phil spoke.  ****  
** **

"It-” He cleared his throat, and with a tight voice asked, “Is it us?" ****  
** **

Daisy nodded and braced for ridicule or worse, rejection, but it never came.  ****  
** **

Phil copied her nod and cleared his throat once more before looking at Daisy. His eyes were watery behind his glasses as he smiled. “I guess we are a family, huh?” ****  
** **

His approval reassured her, as always, but Daisy glanced to Melinda who still hadn’t uttered a word. “May?” ****  
** **

Melinda’s voice sounded suspiciously thick as she said, “It’s fine.” ****  
** **

“That means she loves it,” Phil stage-whispered.  ****  
** **

Not correcting him, Melinda reached out a hand to Daisy as she neared Phil. “Come here.”  ****  
** **

Daisy practically ran into their arms.  ****  
** **

As she did, the longing for affection and a place of belonging deep within her disappeared. It was an awkward hug since Phil was still sitting and Melinda standing, but Daisy sunk into their embrace. She turned her face against the neckline of Phil’s sweater, arms tightening around his neck and Melinda’s arm around her. Daisy didn’t even bother to hold back her smile as she felt Melinda kiss her hair and Phil rub her back.  ****  
** **

_ This  _ was her family, the one she modeled the marshmallow family after, the one Daisy had been searching for her whole life.  ****  
** **

"This is the first real Christmas I've had with a family," Daisy admitted, words muffled against Phil’s shoulder.  ****  
** **

For once, it felt like Christmas. It wasn't because of the cozy sweater Daisy wore that Lian knitted for her, the light falling of snow outside the windows, or the smell of gingerbread filling the apartment, or even the slowly increasing aura of excitement that grew with each passing second that Christmas Day drew near.  ****  
** **

“We’ve had Christmas together before,” Phil said, pulling back to look at Daisy’s face. “On the bus, in the base, hey, even when me and you were on that stakeout a few years back.” ****  
** **

This year, it felt like Christmas because Daisy was finally aware of the love that surrounded the holiday, and realized it. This year, she had a family of her own to spend it with instead of yearning for one.  ****  
** **

Daisy nodded, remembering the snowball cakes she and Phil shared in the cold SUV that night. “Yeah, but it’s never just been us.” ****  
** **

“Well, it’s just us now,” Melinda said. She lifted a hand to Daisy’s cheek, cupping it in her palm. Her lips turned up into a smile which Daisy returned. The scratchy sleeve of Phil’s old Academy sweatshirt that Melinda was wearing tickled Daisy’s chin, but she didn’t pull away until Melinda was the first to move.  ****  
** **

When she did, Daisy sat up, shifting onto the empty chair beside Phil. Her stomach gave an excited flip when he leaned and kissed the top of her head before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. In a similar display of affection, Melinda placed a hand on Daisy’s shoulder as well, twining her fingers with Phil’s.  ****  
** **

Phil sighed, casting a forlorn glance to the marshmallow family. "I kind of don't want to eat them." ****  
** **

Daisy didn’t want to either. “If we don’t they’ll go stale and then we’ll have to throw them away.” ****  
** **

"You eat me all the time anyway." ****  
** **

Daisy choked on the skittle she just snuck. “Mo _ -May! _ ” ****  
** **

Phil returned Melinda’s suggestive tone, "No sugar is as sweet as you." ****  
** **

"That's it.” Daisy pushed away from them. “I'm going to puke all over this gingerbread house." ****  
** **

Ignoring her, Phil wrapped an arm around Melinda’s waist and pulled her onto his lap before kissing her deeply.  ****  
** **

"There's no mistletoe here!" Daisy squawked. ****  
** **

"Actually,” Phil began when he and Melinda parted. Much to Daisy’s chagrin, he pointedly looked up with a smirk. “There is." ****  
** **

Directly above Phil and Melinda was a sprig of mistletoe, taped haphazardly to the ceiling of the breakfast nook. Daisy gaped at it. " _ When _ did you put that up?!" ****  
** **

Only, Phil was too busy kissing Melinda once more to answer. It was a short peck, but before Daisy could be thankful for the unusual brief kiss, she found herself being pulled to the pair.  ****  
** **

“Hey!”  ****  
** **

Try as she might, though admittedly, she didn't want to leave their arms, Daisy couldn’t wriggle free. Melinda had a tight grip on Daisy’s sweater and practically yanked the young woman to her and Phil. They sandwiched Daisy in the middle, ignoring her protests, and simultaneously pressed a kiss to Daisy’s cheeks.  ****  
** **

The shriek building up in Daisy’s throat since she thought they were going to tickle her faded. Instead, Daisy’s eyes widened and even began to water. No nun, foster parent or even a pseudo-parent had ever kissed her cheeks before and for the brief moment of their lips on her skin, Daisy was nearly overcome with emotion but instead swallowed it back when they released her.  ****  
** **

Leaning forward, she rubbed at her cheeks, scrunching her nose up in fake disgust. “Gross.” ****  
** **

Melinda rolled her eyes and delivered a quick smack to Daisy’s behind when the woman got up, ignoring her yelped  _ hey! _ “You love it.”  ****  
** **

Before Daisy could retort or even try and get revenge, Phil smiled at her, eyes warm behind his glasses. “And we love you.” ****  
** **

Any success Daisy had with holding back her tears failed. She blinked them away quickly, though and returned Phil’s smile. “I love you guys too.”  ****  
** **

Right as Melinda was in the middle of sneaking a gumdrop off the roof of the house, Phil stopped her with a, “Wait! We need to take a picture!” ****  
** **

Daisy groaned. Phil had an affinity for taking pictures and stopped at no lengths to get the perfect one. “Now?” ****  
** **

“Yes,” he said as he quickly grabbed his phone from the kitchen counter. “Before Mel eats all the candy off. Now-” Phil paused, looking down at his phone in confusion. “Daisy, what button do I push again?” ****  
** **

After showing Phil for what seemed like the hundredth time how to operate the phone camera, they finally got a few good pictures, most of which were just selfies with Phil constantly forgetting where to look and Melinda’s unimpressed expression. But they got one and Daisy was sure it would find its way to the mantle soon.  ****  
** **

"This is such a waste." Melinda looked at the mess of marshmallow people and the gingerbread house. "None of us are going to eat this." ****  
** **

"I've never seen someone actually eat one of these," Phil said. He poked the chimney of the house which didn't budge. “How would you even eat this? It’s hard as a rock.” ****  
** **

“We can eat the candy and the icing off,” Daisy suggested.  ****  
** **

“I like the way you think.” ****  
** **

“ _ Now? _ ” Phil asked indignantly, his mouth falling open comically. “But we just finished it!” ****  
** **

“The icing will get hard in about an hour,” Melinda pointed out. Parts of the icing on the gingerbread house were already drying and soon would become inedible. “It’s now or never.”  ****  
** **

Phil sighed. “Fine,” he said. “But I get the red vines.”  ****  
** **

Daisy groaned. “I wanted those.” ****  
** **

“You ate all the others before I could,” Phil said, pointedly holding up the empty package amongst the other trash on the table. “And these are the last two. I deserve them after working so hard.” ****  
** **

“Working  _ hard _ ? You-” ****  
** **

Their argument was interrupted by a slim hand reaching in and plucking the two remaining red vines off the roof of the house. Phil and Daisy stared in horror as Melinda ate the candy, yanking a bite off both vines at the same time between her teeth with ease. She chewed, watching their open mouths and wide eyes.  ****  
** **

“You were taking too long,” Melinda answered simply before taking another bite.  ****  
** **

She remained smug for only a few seconds more before an unbidden gasp left her as Phil’s arms wrapped around her waist. He pulled her onto his lap once again, lips finding Melinda’s as he tried to chase the last remnants of red vines when she quickly shoved the rest of the candy in her mouth.  **  
**

Daisy’s disgusted  _ guys! _ joined Phil and Melinda’s laughter above the music playing. They continued to sit around the table, now demolishing the gingerbread house they created and eating the candy that remained. The marshmallow family was soon eaten as well, but not without Phil taking copious amounts of pictures. To Daisy, it was the perfect Christmas, even if it wasn’t exactly Christmas yet and even when Melinda kept stealing her M&M’s. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! :)


End file.
